Five hundred people took to the streets of Devizes to protest against the possible closure of local hospital maternity units.

The march was led by a vintage bus owned by Newsquest, the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald’s parent company, with editor Gary Lawrence and deputy editor Jo Moore (both pictured below) on board.

The march took place as part of a campaign being run by the paper to save two units under threat – at Malmesbury and Devizes.

Mothers and children walked from Devizes Maternity Unit through the centre of town displaying placards and shouting “Save our Maternity Units”.

And Gary, along with the mothers, presented a Gazette petition signed by more than 10,000 people to the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, calling for the maternity units at Devizes and Malmesbury to be saved.

Tim Boucher, the chairman of the Trust said: “I am very pleased that we have a clear indication of the strength of feeling. It gives us a good guide as to how people value the maternity services.”

The cash-strapped Trust, which has debts of £10m, has published a document, Your Health, Your NHS, Your Say, which questions whether some of Malmesbury Hospital’s services, including maternity, could be relocated to Chippenham Hospital, 10 miles away.

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